SNBRN
by LeonPianta
Summary: Five friends play the beta of a new computer game that brings about the end of Earth. As they enter the realm of the game to escape certain death, Kieran realizes an unfortunate fact - both his server and client are complete strangers. Working together, they have to figure out how to adapt to new worlds and save crumbling civilizations.
1. A1 S1 Ch1

SNBRN

Act 1: A Light Breaks Across the Sky

Scene 1: A Pillar of Lost Knowledge

* * *

"Yo, Ki, watch out." Unfortunately, Paulie's warning was pointless, and my head slammed on the table in front of me. He had been too late, and I had been too asleep, which is why my upper half had decided to tumble forward from the couch.

"Ow…" It was the cleanest word I could think to say in the moment. "Thanks for trying."

"You have got to tell me how you function this long without sleeping," Paulie said, quite choppy.

I turned my head slightly to give him the tired eyes, although in this instance they were more tired of his shit than of sleeplessness. "I do sleep, shockingly, but even 24 hours at a time would never be enough."

Before Paulie could bite back with whatever witty remark was surely working through his skull at the moment, his phone gave a very particular ding. "That's gotta be Tae-joon," he stated, opening up the instachat application. "Is that him, crystalKrypton?" Paulie angled his phone in my direction, showing a lime green stripe across the contacts window.

"Yeah. He's always been that color, remember?"

Paulie grunted a noncommittal reply. "Still don't see why he has to change his handle every two weeks. At least he has the decency to stay CK."

As much as I tended to agree with Paulie on that particular issue, there was little that was less interesting about Tae-joon than his instachat tendencies. "What's he saying?"

He tapped the banner and paused for a second. "Oh you know, the usual. "Why is Kieran such a loser, I'm the best person in my pledge class," that sorta thing."

"Right, that sounds exactly like him," I commented. "But seriously, P, I'll strife you right now. Square up."

"You always strife with staves, right? And I've got a baseball bat. Hardly gonna make for an interesting fight, especially when my roommates come out here and yell at us for breaking all the electronics."

"I'm not that out of control. Besides, knowing them, they'd probably join us." Paulie lived in a dorm on campus, and since it was his second year, he'd been allowed to choose his roommates. Somehow, it seemed all four of the guys originated from New York and New Jersey. Naturally, I had nothing against the states, but those three had some big personalities, even compared to Paulie. I wasn't sure why he hadn't just dormed with some of the brothers, as members of fraternities usually did.

In any case, I didn't bother amending my reply, so after a few seconds of an unamused glance, he gave it a rest. "Taej's gotten his shipment in of the game beta."

Knowing Tae-joon, of course, that could have been quite literally any game ever. I'd seen him go immediately from one of those rhythm games to a survivalist horror without so much as a deep breath. The fact that he was messaging Paulie about it did little to clarify; as much time I spent with the guy, I really had no idea what sorts of games he was into. "Which one?"

"The sandbox one. I think it's sandbox, I mean," Paulie answered.

"Oh yeah," I added, "Snbrn. Hell, even I ordered that."

"...Why did you say it like that?"

"Huh?"

Paulie rolled his eyes. "You know that's not how it's supposed to be said. No language has words that long without vowel sounds."

"They didn't put any vowels in the title; get off my back," I replied, throwing up my arms as though it would show him how unreasonable he was being.

"Ever heard of stylistic choices? It's pronounced "sunburn," not "snbren" or whatever the hell you said."

"Sinbrin… Snabrone…"

"Please stop," Paulie groaned. "You ordered it. So did several others. You know Tae-joon has a way of getting things into people's hands." I did have to admit Tae-joon spread the good word about video games fervently, although I wasn't sure I'd have worded that sentence the way Paulie had. "When's your copy shipping?"

"Uh…" I had thought it wouldn't be for another week or so, but if Tae-joon's had arrived, mine couldn't be far behind.

"Good answer," Paulie replied. "If everything I've read about it online is right, the beta's being released in small batches." That had been the reason we'd all ordered at the same time. It seemed that the beta version was going to early fans in waves of about twenty copies of the game at a time, and that server-client connections were limited to copies within the same batch. That way, we'd all be able to connect to each other even if we didn't start playing at the same time. It was a clever mechanic for a game that seemed to boast a lot of emphasis on teamwork, although I had to admit I didn't think it would scale up well when they tried to make the alpha release in the future.

_How do other games like this solve that problem?_ I tipped my head back, trying to think of a practical solution. When I played a video game, it was almost always one-player only. I had a massive soft spot in my heart for games that told intricate stories, weaving the lives of several characters together in meaningful, memorable ways. Thus, my experience in online multiplayer was limited to the occasional phone application that simulated a card game I enjoyed. _Maybe people will be able to place an order for however many copies they want, and then all those copies connect to only each other…_ Of course, any friends behind the curve wouldn't be able to join...

I drummed my fingers on the table before us a few times. "So... since Taej has his, does that mean the rest of us can expect ours?" It'd make the most sense for the developers to send all the copies that were going to Florida at the same time.

Paulie's face looked calm, clearly unbothered by the time I'd spent lost in thought. "Only one way to find out," he answered. In fact, that had probably been specifically what Tae-joon was messaging him about, and he had briefly forgotten. I followed him outside as he headed for the massive mailbox thing at the entryway to his dorm complex. To be honest, it made me quite grateful to no longer live on campus. As much as I enjoyed being a short walk from classes the past couple of years, sharing things like mailrooms and laundry machines with tons of people was hardly my favorite thing.

In the time it took me to monologue internally, however, it seemed Paulie had finished searching his mailbox. "We've got a big padded envelope, and look what it says…"

"Paulie Vardaro, 1025 Clypeaster Dri-" I was interrupted by Paulie bonking me on the head with the envelope.

"More importantly, it's got the Snbrn logo on it, complete with the name. This is definitely the game." He shuffled the envelope in his hands, apparently feeling to make sure both discs were present. Satisfied that they were, we returned to his living room.

He plopped immediately back onto the couch, tearing into the envelope with his bare hands. I admittedly began to think it might have been easier had he chosen to wield something like a pocketknife instead of a baseball bat, especially considering his upbringing. Alas, in a matter of seconds, two cases were on the table, so I said nothing.

Because I don't have eyes, apparently, Paulie saw fit to read the front of one of the cases. "Snbrn Beta, Batch UAG, Client. And uh… the bottom here says ARG."

"Huh, maybe there are more copies of this game going out than I thought," I shrugged. "Six different qualifying letters, so that gives us like 300 million combos."

"Yeah, I really don't think a company is gonna make that many betas of their first ever game," Paulie said, his eyes firmly on the case held in his hands. His look was almost reverent, as though his whole life had been leading up to this moment, in which he would receive some random indie game.

"What company even is it?" I asked. There was roughly zero chance that I'd heard of them; I was rather uninformed on the computer games scene, and it wasn't like a company with only one game could have made something else I'd be familiar with. Alas, if Paulie heard me, he made no attempts to answer me, instead clacking the plastic case forcefully atop its brother. "Uh… so, you gonna fire that bad boy up?"

"I'm pretty sure you were one of the ones most interested in having everyone wait until we all got it."

I nodded heartily. "Oh good, so you actually agree to that. I wasn't sure I'd won you over. But seriously, don't even open that box until we're all literally seated at our computers."

"You're so strung up about this, Ki, you know?" Paulie said. "I've never seen you get this excited about a multiplayer game before."

I couldn't quite explain what it was that made me so passionate, especially considering I'd just been thinking Paulie's admiration odd. The advertising hadn't boasted any promises of interesting characters or impressive storyline, and I hadn't even touched the game myself, but it felt oddly important that we all be able to start it at the same time. Years of experience had taught me to trust whatever my brain told me about certain things, even if it was impossible to reason why. In any case, I had been reminded of a tangentially related question. "I know you said like basically all of us are getting a copy, but… who, exactly, is actually getting a copy?"

Paulie leaned back on the couch, lacing his fingers together behind his head. "Me, you, Taej, Anatoli, and Pierce," Paulie answered. "I don't think we did a good enough job of convincing John, but that's beside the point."

"So, five of the brothers out of… what do we have, thirty? Thirty-two, maybe? Is that a vast majority?" I did my best to keep the sly smile from returning to my face, but it wasn't in the cards.

"Jackass."

* * *

I didn't usually hang out with friends between classes. It was too difficult to find times in the middle of the day that didn't conflict, and I often needed to be focused on getting in my study time at the library. However, I had chosen to hang out with Paulie before karate; at 1800, it was a full four hours after my previous Thursday class, and there was no point in heading home to lie around and get sleepy before doing some hearty physical activity.

The semester was heaving onward at a steady clip. While most of my classes were getting steadily more difficult and deeply stressful, I was excited to be advancing in my training. Sensei got those of us who'd been around as long as I had really heavily into working with our weapons in the most recent weeks. The bo had come exceptionally quickly to me back when I first got my green belt, and in the following year I'd found my weapon kata far outpacing the others. That was when I finally decided staves would be my weapon of choice in case of any strife.

A couple of my brothers had ribbed me about not having any sort of weapon training until the ripe age of 21, but I had been quite the pacifist growing up. I knew most kids had been in at least a couple of fights, but I never saw the point. I didn't do karate to beat people up; I did it for the discipline, the exacting nature of the forms, the state of serenity and introspection I was able to achieve during practice, the steady incline in my strength and self confidence… Indeed, even though I was often very tired, the sessions seemed to pass quickly and without tremendous struggle. The only unfortunate part of the class, I found, was leaving it and waiting until the following week for the next one.

As I put my socks back on after class, Oriel's semi-cheery voice offered a "Hey, Kieran," from beside me. I turned my head to greet the brown belt, standing tall over me with the confidence of someone who had been doing this for three years longer than I had.

"What's up?"

"Since there're no classes, we're having a get together at my place tomorrow night, like 5 o'clock. Interested?" I answered vaguely in the affirmative; it would be nice to hang out with the other people in the martial arts crew, but I wasn't quite sure how deep the bros and I would be in Snbrn by the time 5 o'clock rolled around. I almost felt compelled to admit the game specifically would be the cause of my potential absence. In spite of my expectations, Oriel took it with no disappointment or judgement whatsoever. "Yeah, no worries. Hope you can make it," Oriel finished. His face had been a touch confused; he must have not heard any of the hype the rest of us had about the game.

And so, I watched as he left the gym, admittedly letting my eyes glaze over for a few seconds before refocusing on packing up. There was something about someone who was as dedicated as he was to self-improvement… But there was likely no point in spending time on wishful thinking about my karate buddies, especially those I had just told (for some damn reason) that I would rather play a computer game than hang out with them.

As I made the uneventful drive home, several of my friends danced across my mind. Tae-joon, gushing to me about how awesome of a chance it would be for us to play the beta of Snbrn. Anatoli, looking equal parts intrigued and concerned about a game coming in on a weekend, which he would probably rather spend getting to know a bottle of whiskey with his old roommates. Paulie, definitely hoping that this game would be more intriguing to Anatoli than the aforementioned whiskey. Oriel, who had been in excellent form in class… I almost forgot to check the mailbox as I walked up the driveway. Awkwardly, my arm bumped into my roommate's car. As much as I loved living with Gian, I knew that there was a snowball's chance in hell he'd brought in the mail.

The tiny spark of excitement I'd managed to build up as I took five steps to the mailbox was quickly snuffed as I saw no sign of any video games whatsoever. Alas, I grabbed the cluster of pristinely white envelopes and trundled forward into the house, calling out a wordless greeting to Gian without checking to see which room, exactly, he was in.

"Yo yo," he called back. "Hey Ki, come over here for a sec."

I obliged without hesitation. "What's shakin'?"

"Nothing much, man. What are you doing tomorrow night?"

It seemed I had somehow become quite the hot commodity. "I don't know," I answered. "The martial arts crew wants to hang at Oriel's, but I'm prolly gonna stay in and play that game Taej has been raving about."

"Oh hell, those are both better than what I was planning," Gian laughed. "Any chance they'd yell at me if I went to that hangout?"

"I don't see why they would. You have been to at least one karate class in your life, right?"

"It was about four classes, actually," Gian retorted. "Remember when I thought I had time for an elective last year?"

"Hey, then you might see some familiar faces!" I waggled my eyebrows a few times.

"I see several of them at the gym all the time, jackass."

"Funny, Paulie said the same thing," I replied, tongue-in-cheek. "Not about the karate people, I mean, about me being a jackass."

"That's the important part," Gian agreed. I stuck out my tongue at him, tossing his letters on the nearby countertop. "Well, I'm gonna check out a little early tonight," he said, giving the mail little more than a glance.

"Really? On a night when we don't have classes tomorrow?"

Gian shrugged, his casual grin plastered unfailingly on his face. "Tomorrow morning is leg day, and I'd better stay on schedule. Sweet dreams, bro."

"You too." I quickly remembered his dogs. "Tell Leila and Soraya I love them."

"They know, buddy, they know. Like I said, sweet dreams. Keep 'em clean, casanova."

As much as I'd have loved to retort, he was down the hall and out of dodge in a flash, way quicker than I would have been able to come up with something legitimately witty. As far as I was aware, I wasn't the world's biggest horndog, although it was well within Gian's nature to playfully rib. Every so often, he'd circle back to the fact that I'd never been in a relationship, which he seemed to think was much less common than it actually was.

Admittedly, his words had left me a touch uncomfortable. Not the naughty part, surprisingly, but the wish of sweet dreams he'd thought important enough to offer twice. I'd never told Gian - or anybody, for that matter - that I hadn't ever actually _had_ a dream. Indeed, it was hardly the sort of thing one could just mention to their friends. Almost everyone I knew had regaled me with a story of at least one odd dream, but I'd never had so much as a thought in the night. Normally, that wouldn't bother me; my waking life as a senior in college was exhausting enough without the spectre of random nighttime nonsense hanging over my head. Over the years, I had convinced myself that if dreaming did ever happen to me, it was likely to start off with a nightmare. However, the idea of getting to be somewhere else, doing something impossible, magical, even if only for a few fake minutes… well, I'd have been lying if I said the idea hadn't intrigued me. And so, such thinking left me feeling odd, and another strange sensation creeped into my head.

I had a feeling the next day was going to be a very long one.


	2. A1 S1 Ch2

SNBRN

* * *

I awoke on Friday, the 14th of October, at the ripe hour of 11 AM. Clearly, I was putting the prophecy I'd made the night before into terrible practice. Alas, if I knew anything about college, it was that there was no way any decent chunk of the student body would be asleep before midnight. And in any case, I was sure to not be clocking out that early. In fact, I was almost inclined to sleep in even later, for once in my life enjoying the knowledge that there was nothing forcing me out of bed.

The light from the outside world, much further progressed in its own day than I was in mine, wavered on the wall across from my bed. The breath of the vents must have brought my blinds to life, their gentle motion a reminder that, indeed, the sun was quite up, and so it would behoove me to get myself up and waste no more time. Not that I was planning on doing anything terribly exciting that day, but I held onto hope that I'd be doing more than lying indoors.

As much joy as I could have gotten from hanging around the house, just listening to music or something, I thought it might be a good idea to celebrate the break from classes by spending time with someone. The question that remained, of course, was who. If I knew Paulie and Anatoli, they'd be hanging out for a while at one of their places, or getting food on campus. Tae-joon had been showing a tremendous amount of self-control by not yet playing Snbrn, so I imagined he'd quite literally be pregaming for a good chunk of the day. Pierce, however, seemed to be a reliable choice.

I'd met Pierce very early in his first semester at the university, during our fraternity's formal recruitment week. He had hardly added anything to the conversation, clearly not one to raise his voice over anyone else. Six weeks later, he was my first little. Any member of Greek Life knows the kind of brotherhood shared between a big and a little, and it had persisted without fail throughout the two years since. Fortunately, much like it had for me, the fraternity helped him open up, and he was now one of my first picks when I had free time.

Thus, I opened up my instachat, seeking his purple banner and typing out a quick greeting.

kuiperTitan: Pierceee

kickinIt: What's happening dude

kuiperTitan: Nothing, naturally. Was hoping you'd be up to hang out? Let's get some pizza.

kickinIt: Sounds good but don't want to be out too long

kickinIt: Mail comes by in two hours and I don't want to waste any time after the game comes

kuiperTitan: Is my own son getting excited about a video game?

kickinIt: Maybe

kickinIt: Catch you at the keller in ten

kuiperTitan: Cheers

If he was planning on meeting up in ten minutes, that meant I would have to be shoving myself out the door in basically no time, and I hadn't even dressed yet. I quickly threw on a pair of shorts and my favorite tee, a teal one with the number phi on it. The white print had started to break up a bit, as well-worn shirts were wont to do when I just kind of shoved them into the washing machine with the rest of my clothing. But there was no time to mourn the lives of the crumbling little digits - a hearty lunch awaited.

There was nothing quite like going outside on a day when you'd briefly considered not doing so at all. People around me have always lauded the health benefits of being in the sunlight, raving on about Vitamin D or whatever, but it had never felt quite so refreshing before. Perhaps I was just really able to focus on it as I enjoyed an event-free drive, or perhaps I was reaching a particularly interesting place in my hormonal cycle. Whatever the case may have been, I made note to ask Pierce if he'd be okay with sitting outside.

He was, naturally. It seemed my request was minor enough to be accommodated with no resistance. "Glad to be out of classes?" I asked as I shifted in my seat, a sizable pie approaching from inside.

"It's hard not to be," Pierce answered. "Being out in the middle of the day really helps you appreciate that Florida weather, doesn't it?" The talk was a bit bland for us, perhaps, but his love of the warmth of the south was hard to disagree with. Even here, in the middle of the closest thing this town had to an urban center, a wealth of greenery sprouted from the patch of rich soil that framed the restaurant. As we gave the plants a pensive look, they almost seemed to spread their leaves further, as though stretching to soak in more rays.

"Too bad you're eating their cousins," I said to Pierce, capping off with a melodramatic sigh as he took another bite of salad.

"It's okay, they're too dumb to notice."

I could only respond with a chuckle before going to town on another slice of pizza. Pierce seemed to show a hint of relief that the conversation ended there; he grew easily tired when others who knew him less ribbed him about his more careful eating habits. Naturally, I'd be the last person to think of crossing that line.

Indeed, we were basically silent until after I had slain the two-thirds of the pizza that had been allotted to me. He held his standard contented look upon his face, although I could have sworn there was a glimmer of consternation in his eyes. "You okay?" I asked.

The glimmer snapped away as he blinked. "Huh, oh yeah," he answered. "Just got kind of a weird feeling is all."

I was no stranger to such things. "What kind of feeling?" I gripped my drink, scooting my chair forward to give him my full attention.

Alas, his first answer was a shrug, and several seconds passed before he spoke again. "I don't really know. It feels like I've got some big responsibility I'm forgetting about."

I had grown very familiar with a feeling like the one Pierce was describing. _That's college for ya,_ I thought, but I didn't think that would exactly be comforting. No, if Pierce had truly been worried about an assignment, he would not have been so unnerved. Whatever it was, there was no way he'd be able to explain it, so there was no sense in ragging him to get a better understanding.

"So," he said, a few minutes later, "I guess you haven't got your game in yet?"

"Yeah, I think it'll be today."

Pierce nodded, looking down at his phone. "I was chatting with Anatoli last night, and he mentioned having his already. He also said something about chasing some raccoons off his doorstep with a knife."

"That sounds like him," I answered. "Although I'd figure the knife thing would come first." In response to this, Pierce reversed his phone, showing me the conversation. Indeed, there was the tale of captainTorpedo and the rowdy raccoons, right before me in russet text, with Snbrn only a footnote afterwards. "It's a wonder that man hasn't gotten himself seriously injured."

"Honestly, do we even need to fund a giant military? If we just cloned like ten of him then we'd be covered."

_Lord help anyone going against more than one Anatoli…_

As refreshing as it had been to spend lunch outside with Pierce, we both had classwork that needed to be done over the weekend. I had a wealth of homework to finish for Optics, easily the worst class in the history of science. Similarly, as a biomedical engineering major, Pierce had to have been knee deep in genetics or some shit. In all honesty, I wasn't entirely sure what kind of classes biomedical engineers really took, but I had a feeling that they were far beyond the scope of my understanding, so I had never asked.

That thought, however, easily distracted me from my work. I had always thought it weird that people would, on hearing others' majors, gasp in shock and talk about how difficult a life path others had chosen for themselves. In my case, people seemed to love astronomy, but the second I mentioned physics they would be running for the hills. However, I never thought of my major as hard. Well, that was a lie. I had never thought of my major as despairingly, pointlessly difficult. There was a lot about outer space that was not understood, of course, but the field truly seemed to be where I shined. The same could be said about Pierce in biomedics. He had an amazing intuition for the science of healing, and his GPA was an excellent reflection of that. Although I had done little to shape him - he was already an amazing student - I couldn't help feeling proud of him as though he really were my son or something.

Alas, if I wanted to be equally proud of myself, I needed to get back on that Optics homework without letting myself get distracted. In an ideal world, the subject would have been fascinating. Literally all of the information we got from deep space was in the form of electromagnetic radiation, so mastery of it opened up a ton of interesting questions. Unfortunately, the professor had been dead set in his ways, convinced that the way he'd been instructed sixty years prior was the only way it could be taught. I felt bad for the rest of the class, as a majority of them struggled to see what was important in a sea of formulas our professor had splattered across the board. Admittedly, though, I was grateful that I had an almost intuitive understanding. It was a tactic I'd used to get through a ton of less-interesting classes, and I was hardly about to keep myself from continuing to succeed.

That being said… one could tell how distracted I was still letting myself be. It seemed to be one of those days where I just could not make myself do school work, almost as if the university was a tangible force, punishing me for trying to do things on our day off. I lolled my head to the side, glancing at my wall clock before deciding to finally give the work a rest. I had toiled for at least thirty minutes, and that would have to be enough for the time being.

Before I could even crash back down in my desk chair, a ding resounded from my cell phone. I thought I'd put the thing on silent, but apparently the instachat had other plans for me. The screen lit up, showing a lime-green banner and the name of the accosting party. "It's crystalKrypton…" I hummed to myself.

crystalKrypton: so it's after three, is your mail in?

kuiperTitan: Taej… My amigo…

crystalKrypton: i know, i know. but seriously, i've been waiting my whole life for this.

kuiperTitan: It has literally been one day…

crystalKrypton: ok you might be right but come on lol

kuiperTitan: Thy will be done

As I stepped outside to see if the mail truck had passed, I found myself distracted by the sky. It was bright and warm, although filled with an intricate series of clouds. I could tell that this is the kind of weather Farmer would have loved to have back home.

"Farmer" was the affectionate nickname I had given to the man who raised me. He never bothered to hide the fact that he was not my biological father, but we made sure not to let that get between us on any occasion. By all accounts, I was incredibly lucky; he protected me, engaged in some of my interests, and was frequently supportive of me, even when I wanted to go to college far away from our home in Ireland. Indeed, he was definitely the best thing that could have happened to me; wherever my birth parents were, I never found myself wanting to find them.

Of course, no one is a perfect parent; the man was less than twenty years my senior, and there were several times where he had a look on his face as though he was in way over his head with raising me. As one might have been able to tell from the nickname, his original goal in life had been to manage a large, thriving farm by himself in the countryside. Although I rather enjoyed being there, the countryside was absolutely filled with backwards-thinking, anti-progressive types, people that would sooner turn a blind eye to oppression than risk their social life by speaking out against it. I briefly recalled one of Farmer's best friends, a man who he often hung out with when I was a preteen. He had believed he could waltz right in the door while on the phone, muttering to the unfortunate soul on the other end of the line about… something upsetting.

Whatever it had been, he had dropped a slur without even blinking. Filled with the energy and ambition of youth, I had demanded he get his ass out of my house and never return, and he seemed pissed enough to make good on that demand. Farmer gave me the strangest look immediately after, but if he was disappointed, he never said anything. _How could he even make friends like that?_ I wondered, perhaps only a bit grateful that he'd never mentioned the encounter again. I couldn't tell if moments like that made him regret his decision to take me in… one he'd never given me more specific details about. For all I knew, I could have been in line for the royal throne, not that it mattered…

And, just like that, I had managed to amble right past the mailbox, which I only noticed as my foot stepped down off the boulevard strip and into the side of the street, shaking me out of my thoughts. Fortunately I had only been in my own driveway, and there was no traffic to be disturbed by my reverie. As I reached my hand into the mailbox, I gave another long, appreciative look to the sky, returning to my initial thought. _Farmer loves this kind of weather._ It was warm, but not directly sunny, and a breeze gently caressed the trees around me. This was perfect outdoors weather, and considering almost everything he did revolved around the crops or the animals, he'd take special care to not let days like this go to waste.

Somehow, it seemed like that was the push I needed to finally get me to actually do something. Of course, I still wasn't planning on finishing that homework just yet, and there was not a ton of yard work that Gian and I ever needed to do in this very basic house, but I'd be damned if I wasn't going to do, well… something. Thus, as I shuffled through the envelopes we'd received, my eyes softened at the sight - I had gotten Snbrn. And I was going to play the shit out of it with four of my best friends.

My first order of business would be to check back in with Tae-joon, who I was certain was giving me an assortment of concerned messages. Well, I supposed it was my fault for making him wait three minutes for a response. Next would be to ensure that Pierce's copy mailed as well, unless Taej had already done so and was ragging me about it, which was definitely not out of the question. Then I'd have to check with Paulie and Anatoli… honestly, it would have been much easier for the five of us to all instachat in the same window. I couldn't understand why the app didn't have that functionality, but that would have to be a question for another day.

crystalKrypton: soooo?

kuiperTitan: You can rejoice, lol, I have it. I'm guessing you've already been talkin to Pierce?

crystalKrypton: you know me lol. he got it about fifteen minutes ago, so you're the last one.

kuiperTitan: Cool. Should we go ahead and fire this up then? What's the plan?

crystalKrypton: well there isn't one exactly tbh. hard to believe i know but it's not like it's gonna take us forever to come up with one

kuiperTitan: It would sure be a lot faster if all five of us could chat at once. Know any apps where we can do that?

crystalKrypton: dude, this one. this app can do that… you have to have version 1.4 though

kuiperTitan: Ah, hells. I'll go ahead and update then. Get the rest of the bros to do so too, and THEN we can figure out the rest

I didn't stick around to see Taej's response; I knew he'd be happy to oblige and not waste any more time. And so, still standing beside my mailbox, I opened up the app store to update. As I stood stock-still, staring into my phone and clutching a heap of envelopes, I wondered if I looked odd. Surely most people would have stepped back inside by this point. But something was nagging at me, tapping in my head to make sure I was staying outside. It must have been another one of my hunches, so I would have been loathe to disobey it. Besides, there was no reason to rush away from what I presumed would be my last time enjoying the beautiful day.

A booming sound from behind me caused my attention to waver, sending a flinch up my spine. The nerves manifested in my hand, causing me to squeeze my phone tightly and jam my thumb to the screen as I turned around. I couldn't see any immediate sign of what had made the noise; it sounded like it had been rather far in the distance, but whatever it had been must have dissipated. In fact, I wasn't even sure I hadn't imagined it.

In any case, my next glance at my phone revealed that I'd cancelled the updating process on the instachat app. "Damn," I mumbled. Who knows how long that had wasted - perhaps an entire minute.

Unfortunately, the situation did not improve, as I heard another boom from the same direction. This time, I spun my entire body around to see if the perpetrator was still visible. There was no obvious sign of the source, but a tendril of smoke appeared in the distance, slowly thickening. As the ash rose, I could feel my chest sink.

Before the sense of dread could completely grey my heart, a bright light streaked across my field of vision, flaring as though inflamed. No… it was definitely inflamed. And it tumbled right towards the earth, beyond the treeline, with yet another boom. We were being hit by meteors.


	3. A1 S1 Ch3

SNBRN

* * *

All my years studying outer space could never have prepared me for an overzealous peppering of the planet by meteors. So, relying on the best instincts I had, I ducked inside. "Gian!" I shouted, most likely out of fear. There was nothing to be gained from it; he'd been gone when I returned from lunch, and if he had come back, I would have heard him and seen his car in the driveway. I was spacy, sure, but I wasn't completely out of touch with reality. Lord only knew where he would be, though. If I had to guess, he was probably already hanging out with the martial arts crew... Hopefully they had some sort of plan for inclement weather.

_Inclement weather, now that's an understatement,_ I groaned. I gave myself a minute or two to work off the initial panic, even though a large part of me knew there was little protection to be offered by a roof. _What do you even plan for in a downpour of fucking meteors?_

My thoughts went immediately back to my friends. Indeed, a peek at my phone showed that they had been trying to message me. Apparently, whatever I'd done to silence the notifications worked, although I wasn't sure how convenient that would be in a time like this. The first chain of messages I opened myself up to was with Tae-joon, a veritable wall of lime green text.

crystalKrypton: kieran did you do the update?

crystalKrypton: ok the ask was just a formality. i know you didn't because i can't add you to the group chat.

crystalKrypton: damn it kieran, we don't have time for this

crystalKrypton: ki

crystalKrypton: god damn it kieran reply

crystalKrypton: anatoli and paulie already started the game when i messaged them

crystalKrypton: paulie is already anatoli's server but we need to hurry the fuck up and start playing

kuiperTitan: Tae-joon are you kidding me right now? There are literal meteors coming down, and you're worried about this game?

kuiperTitan: What the hell is going on dude?

crystalKrypton: ffs we talked about this in the group. did your old ass phone not update?

crystalKrypton: whatever listen these meteors are coming down everywhere

crystalKrypton: and if you don't want to get wiped the fuck out by one then put the damn server disc in and serve one of us

crystalKrypton: then anatoli can loop back and be your server and we're out of this fuckin world

kuiperTitan: Literally What the Fuck are you even talking about?

crystalKrypton: no time for that dude. paulie's takin care of anatoli but i'm up next so get pierce's client code

crystalKrypton: it's that three letter code on the client box, you'll need to get it from him and then when it's your turn give yours to anatoli

crystalKrypton: see you on the other side bro

That… was not comforting. I briefly considered asking Pierce a few of the choice questions I had given to Tae-joon, but the gamer had made me reconsider. If Anatoli was busy with this game already, it might have been wise to give him my client code right away, so he'd be able to hang onto it and retrieve it when necessary. I wasn't exactly sure what kind of time scale I was looking at here, but if Anatoli was the only one currently playing as a client, and that hadn't changed in the several minutes since my prior chat with Tae-joon, I at least had some time to think.

I ripped open my Snbrn envelope as though I was Paulie, hardly caring that the two game cases clacked on the ground in front of me. They had fallen just perfectly - the client case was upright, and the label was clear. The only difference from the one Paulie received had been three letters, which for me were THR.

kuiperTitan: Anatoli, I've got THR so whenever the time comes, yeah.

kuiperTitan: Taej started to tell me what the literal fuck is going on, but I've still got no clue. Care to enlighten?

kuiperTitan: ...must be rough.

captainTorpedo: No'ws not the time, too busy trying not to die here. Not covenient to use this when the ingame server/client chat separate. Will talk once I make it to the medium. Good luck.

The conversation had been less than enlightening, but I had at least gained one bit of knowledge - Snbrn included its own chat function, which seemed to be limited to the server and client pairs. I wondered briefly if there would be two separate windows to chat with both my server and my client, or if they were in the same place. I also wondered what the medium was.

My next best bet was Paulie, who perhaps could offer a touch more insight as a server player.

kuiperTitan: Paulie, mind telling me what I'm supposed to do as a server?

kuiperTitan: Oh, and perhaps also what the fuck the rush is with this game? Taej almost had my head on a pike.

tuCapisci: If you're me, Anatoli tells you "MET" and you pick the "MET" option once you start up your server disc, so you become his server.

tuCapisci: And then, you wonder why the fuck Anatoli's on your computer screen, and you drop a bunch of weird shit in his house.

tuCapisci: Then the weird shit starts to countdown, and a meteor slowly falls from the sky, heading towards his house.

tuCapisci: Point is, I've done what I can for him and he's got three minutes to get the fuck out of dodge before it hits him.

kuiperTitan: Uh… you've totally lost me…

tuCapisci: Well, tough; you better figure it out.

tuCapisci: This is no ordinary game, dude, it's the end of the damn world.

tuCapisci: As soon as Anatoli makes it into the Medium, Tae-joon is gonna be my server so I can get in.

tuCapisci: Then Pierce will get him in, you'll get Pierce in, and Anatoli will get you in.

tuCapisci: You'll surely have a lot of questions like, "What the hell is this giant machine thing in my house now."

tuCapisci: Well, that's something you should try to figure out when you're still playing server.

tuCapisci: When it's your turn to be client, be quick.

tuCapisci: You're lucky because you'll have someone who's already done what you'll have to do, so no excuses.

tuCapisci: He's almost outta time, I gotta go.

So, another one of my brothers was already knee-deep in this nonsense. I read his navy blue words again, then going for a third time. Frankly, it looked… well, there was no adjective fitting enough for this. I would have to sit on my hands until I got more information, or until someone else began to yell at me over instachat.

_Update it, you imbecile,_ my brain chided me. I dropped into a nearly-seated position on a couch in the common room, my phone held tight between my hands. Indeed, the best bet I had for information was to check what the other four had already said. Hopefully I had not missed anything important.

As soon as the application had finished its update, I found myself on the receiving end of a personal message, so I would have to put off the group chat just a bit longer. Unsurprisingly, though, it was from Pierce.

kickinIt: Kieran this is looking like some fucked up shit

kickinIt: If I understand right, these meteors are coming down hardcore around the world

kickinIt: I guess they started a couple of hours ago and have only been getting heavier

kickinIt: So the only chance we have of surviving this is to play the game

kuiperTitan: How is a game gonna save us from a shitstorm of meteors?

kickinIt: I know this is crazy, but… playing the game whisks us away to some other universe, which is safe from meteors, I guess

kuiperTitan: So… does this mean the game happens in this other universe?

kickinIt: I guess so

kickinIt: Lookin like we'll be finding out here pretty soon

kickinIt: You'd better look at the conversation the rest of us had while you were updating

kickinIt: I'm not sure how much time we each have to enter the Medium, so I'll go ahead and post my client code here

kickinIt: It's CYS, so select that one as soon as your server disc loads

kickinIt: But not yet, cause I think that will rush the meteor that's headed to my place

kuiperTitan: Since we've got a bit of time here… can we all agree that this cannot actually be happening? That we've got meteors coming right at us that we have to play a computer game to escape from… God, Pierce, think of all the people who aren't playing this.

kickinIt: We can worry about everyone else once we worry about ourselves

kickinIt: It's like they say in the airplanes, you gotta fix your own oxygen mask before you can fix the one on your kids

kickinIt: Or something

kickinIt: It's a labored metaphor, but let's all just worry about each other staying alive before we worry about anything else

I didn't want to only worry about four other people. If meteors were crashing globally, then there were eight billion lives on the line here, and if this game was the only chance at salvation... God, I hoped we weren't the only ones playing.

For a moment, a splitting headache racked my forehead as I questioned everything I'd been told. How could I possibly accept any of this? There was too much telling me none of this could be true. The entirety of physics could basically be reworded into "computers have no causal link to space rocks" without a hint of doubt. But as beautifully and simply as that thought matched with my life experiences, there were a few things that were unquestionable.

One - there were a shit ton of meteors crashing into the ground. I could hear them from inside, although I'd been willfully ignoring them, praying that there might be some chance it was just a freak astronomical event. Two - four of my best friends were playing this game. They may not have always had their priorities perfectly set in every aspect of life, but they knew the meteors were happening, leading me to... Three - all four were saying the game was the only way to escape the meteors. Even if they had wanted to pull an elaborate ruse on me, it was impossible to fake an apocalypse.

_Holy shit, an apocalypse._ There was a train of thought that would not lead me anywhere helpful. I'd always figured that if there were some kind of apocalypse, I'd be relatively screwed. If it had been anything other than a zombie outbreak, I didn't see any point. Zombies, of course, were only ex-human, and I trusted my weapon and strategy enough to outpace them. However, if there had been a nuclear fallout, or if we had another asteroid extinction event, I had honestly been planning to just lie down in bed and die rather than live in a world without the internet and stuff. But here I was, using said internet to chat with my besties even as the end of times was upon us. The thought made me want to twist at my watch to work out the anxious energy. It helped, but only minutely.

It was such a shame to be sitting in my living room, not doing a damn thing as the world was ending. Who knew how little time I had, considering all of the people I could have called and said goodbye to. Gian had definitely not ordered a copy of the game… not that it would have mattered, with him out of the house. Maybe, somehow, Oriel or one of the others in the martial arts crew did, though, so maybe there was a chance. But the rest of the students at the university? My friends back in Ireland? …Farmer? There was no chance in hell Farmer happened to be following the release of this indie computer game.

Those were emotions I was not prepared to deal with. Alas, it was through tears that I finally read the conversation my four brothers had started without me.

crystalKrypton: listen closely everyone. you know that anatoli's already dealing with this snbrn shit, so here's the plan.

crystalKrypton: anatoli paulie me pierce kieran

crystalKrypton: anatoli and paulie is obvious, i am the one with the plan so i'm logically next, and homeboy ki isn't in here yet, so he's last. hope that's good enough for everyone

captainTorpedo: Yep

tuCapisci: Fine.

crystalKrypton: great. still trying to get him in here though but while we're waiting. anatoli and paulie tell us everything we'll need to know?

tuCapisci: Server selects their respective client's code out of the drop-down menu.

tuCapisci: Server opens up the Phernalia tab and sets down the four items in there in order: Cruxtruder, Punch Designix, Totem Lathe, Alchemiter

kickinIt: What the hell do those do

captainTorpedo: Client time. He's gonna pop open the Cruxtruder to get out a dowle of cruxite and his sprite. Then prototype the sprite with something in your house, preferably soething sentient so that the bastard can tell you what the hell is going on.

captainTorpedo: That's the key step. These sprites seem to actaully be built to tell us what this damn game is all about, so don't waste any time and get yours to do that. There's a countdown that shows up on the Cruxtruder when you poen it, and I'm pretty sure it counts down to when the meteors' supposed to hit you.

kickinIt: Dude, why are you chatting with us if you've got a meteor headed your way

crystalKrypton: pierce is right hurry up and finish your shit then worry about us

captainTorpedo: Here here

tuCapisci: Yeah, so what he did next was what his sprite said.

tuCapisci: Get a card out of the Punch Designix, use it and the cruxite dowel at the Totem Lathe, then use that dowel at the Alchemiter.

tuCapisci: Then congrats, you're in the Medium.

crystalKrypton: keep everyone in the loop okay? don't leave a bro hanging

Ironically, that message had been the last in the chat, not that I was complaining. The conversation had been filled with a lot of information that was still meaningless, but I did my best to internalize the main points. I wondered if I should say anything in it, so that everyone knew I read it. From the way things seemed to be going, it was probably best reserved for urgent information, at least until we all made it into this Medium. I was hardly the king of brief, clever thought, and the last thing I wanted was to distract someone who was trying to beat a timer, but if anything went wrong… well, I thought they'd want one last message, just in case.

kuiperTitan: Thank you guys for everything. No matter what happens, I love each and every one of you. Stay safe and good luck

As soon as I sent it, I felt kind of awkward. My friends were avoiding an apocalypse, not graduating from high school… But there were no better words to say that were coming to me.

Indeed, soon enough, there was a reply in the chat.

crystalKrypton: pierce, i can't seem to message you (this damn phone) just add me at phe

kickinIt: Roger dodger

kickinIt: We love you too, Kieran

If Pierce was getting Tae-joon into the game, that meant my time was coming soon. Thus, I rushed into my bedroom, putting everything I'd need on my desk and opening up the server case. I knew I should wait for Pierce's go ahead to load it up, but I figured the less time wasted, the better. So, I popped open the disc drive, tenderly set the server disc within, and drummed my fingers on the desk beside it.

That was doing me no good, though. If I was going to rush into this game, which seemed to be the only option, I was certain I'd rather do it with a clear mind. Closing my eyes, I let my body fall still, doing the best I could to enter a state of meditation. As I slowly reined in my wildly wandering thoughts, I did my best to picture nothing, focusing instead on the count of my breathing. One… two… three…

When I finally opened my eyes again, I saw that I had a notification from instachat. "Go time," I whispered, quieter than intended. As expected, it had been Pierce.

kickinIt: Okay, we managed to get Tae-joon in

kickinIt: He accidentally picked one of the client codes for someone we didn't know instead of Paulie's somehow

kickinIt: But it's all good, I got a message from Anatoli saying that Taej's client ended up being Paulie's server

kuiperTitan: Huh, weird, but fortunate. Looks like we've got a sixth in this round then…

kickinIt: Yep, maybe one of the other people who got the demo didn't have a group like we did

kuiperTitan: Well, the more the merrier, I guess.

I was momentarily comforted by Pierce's words. His reminder of the tons of other copies of the game that were distributed, at least, helped me believe that the five of us would not be the only ones to make it out of this meteor attack.

But as another boom resounded across miles, one question sprung to mind - if Anatoli was messaging Pierce from the Medium, why hadn't he posted it in the group chat? I supposed it didn't really matter, but… the thought left me uneasy. A quick glance at the main page of my instachat app told me that Anatoli was offline, so he must have been getting back to work on the game, but the little digits that showed how long he had been offline had vanished.

kuiperTitan: I guess it's getting time for you to make it in, huh

kickinIt: Yessir, you've already got my client code, so I suppose I'd better log out of here and get Snbrn running

kickinIt: The next message I'll get to you will be in the server/client chat

kuiperTitan: Alright. I'll review the rules and get to you ASAP.

Apparently Pierce had been instachatting on his laptop, which explained his momentary absence as he was getting Tae-joon situated. But now, it was time for me to do the same for him. Finally, I would see what Snbrn was all about. In a way, I considered myself lucky - I wasn't going to be clouded by the illusion of this being some kind of carefree experience. I knew that a game that was willing to destroy Earth would probably be less than a cakewalk. Indeed, playing this game was going to start hard and get harder. I'd never be able to explain how I knew that, but as the server disc loaded, I was awash with the realization of the choice before me.

And I wasn't going to take it lightly.

The moment the load completed, a small dialogue box popped up. "Select client," I read aloud, as though my ears were more trustworthy than my eyes. When I opened it up, I saw a short list of seven codes. I spotted mine near the bottom, then got to looking for Pierce's. "CYS…" They were alphabetical, so it should have been near the top.

The first code in the drop-down menu was "GLU." Whatever had happened… Pierce already had a server.


	4. A1 S1 Ch4

SNBRN

* * *

Messaging Pierce was useless. I believed I had the situation analysed correctly in a manner of seconds. Pierce was hardly going to close his window out of Snbrn, considering it was our only path to salvation. He'd message his server, thinking the whole time that it was me, and who knows when he would learn differently. How Anatoli had known that Paulie's server wasn't Tae-joon was a mystery that would need to be solved later… But it did give me a glimmer of hope.

If Tae-joon had managed to get himself back in the loop by finding Paulie's server, then I could do the same by finding Pierce's.

The problem, of course, would be deciding which of the seven codes was the proper one. Naturally, THR was right out; I didn't think Snbrn would be crazy about me being my own client, especially since I hadn't even loaded the client disc yet. Just to test it out, I clicked on THR, hitting Enter to see what the game would say.

"Error: Invalid client." The game couldn't be any plainer than that. So if I could only serve for someone whose client disc had been run, that meant the only one that should work would be the most recently loaded client… and that could only be the person who served for Pierce. My confidence restored, I clicked on one of the codes at random - SER.

"Connection successful." I had to stop myself from pumping my fists in the air at that stroke of luck.

After a few seconds more of loading bars, my screen filled with an impossible image. I was now in full view of someone's entire bedroom, as though a camera had been placed in a corner of the ceiling. "What the fuck…" I was too distracted to notice the game's user interface. There was legitimately a person sitting at his own desk, Snbrn clearly plastered on his screen.

"Helloo?" he whistled through my speakers, his voice a mixture of concern and playfulness. I wasn't quite sure what to make of him yet, but if everything I'd been told was true, I had a job to do for him.

I allowed myself a few seconds more of disbelief and trepidation, considering the nature of my day to this point. Honestly, it had just been impossibility after impossibility. Alas, I found the window for server/client communication and opened it up.

Server: Hey, looks like we'll be working together.

Client: I've been counting on that. Mind going into the Phernalia tab and laying down all of that sick equipment?

Server: Not a problem, mate. Uh, anywhere you want it in particular?

Client: Plenty of room in here. Place the first things here and move out to the living room if you have to.

I finally decided to give some attention to the interface, reading the tabs along the top of the screen until I found the Phernalia. True to Paulie's word, the first item shown was called the Cruxtruder. It was reminiscent of a pedestal, the kind that would be right at home in an art gallery, sturdily supporting a surreal marble carving. After clicking the device, it was then attached to my mouse, apparently allowing me to drag until I found the ideal place to drop it in my client's room. At my best guess, it was about 1,5 meters on each side; I wondered how I was going to manage to fit three other machines in this poor bastard's bedroom.

Doing my best to optimize space, I clicked the Cruxtruder down in the back of the room, flush with the wall and a dresser. The client flinched at the sight of the machine appearing out of thin air, but it seemed he and I were both quickly getting used to the death of classical physics. He recovered quickly, spinning back around to type in the chat.

Before opening up the messages, I decided to save a bit of time by placing the next device, the Punch Designix. It seemed to be the smallest of the four, so I was able to fit it along a wall next to his door. This time, however, he didn't flinch, his hands working away at the keys for a few seconds.

Client: On second thought, I don't want things to get too tight in here. Can you put the other machines in the living room? I'll go ahead and open up the Cruxtruder.

Without waiting for my reply, he whipped out a nunchaku, giving it a few slow twists. _Where the hell did this skinny white dude get a damn nunchaku?_ I briefly thought. Alas, it was likely unwise to be calling the pot black when my weapon was of Okinawan origin. If my client was a martial artist as well, perhaps there was a lot I could learn from him. Of course, that would require surviving my way into the Medium. _One thing at a time, Ki._

The top of the pedestal on the Cruxtruder was some kind of metal lid. When the nunchaku smashed against it, the lid popped off. Two items sprung forth from within - a cylinder that appeared to be glass or plastic, and a glowing ball of pulsing light. Both were boldly orange, but only the cylinder plopped to the ground. The ball hovered ominously, as though it were a butterfly.

"There's my timer," my client said, ignoring the two items for a moment and staring at the Cruxtruder. Indeed, I'd missed the sight of the screens along the bottom of the pedestal when I placed the device, but now they were lit up with an LED clock. Currently, it was counting down from about ten minutes, which meant he had about that long to get into the Medium before…. I sincerely hoped he wouldn't need that much time.

I definitely should have been trying to figure out how to pan my view to his living room, so that I could place the other two machines, but I couldn't help watching to see what he was doing. Clearly he'd learned what to do from his client, and I didn't want to miss a single important step.

I took careful note of his next two actions. His first was to pick up the orange cylinder, clutching it as best as one could clutch a perfectly smooth item. A couple of taps with his fingernail betrayed the material to be more crystalline than what I had originally thought, but attention to the cylinder was set aside for the moment as he looked to the sphere of light. "What the hell am I gonna prototype this with…" He gazed around his bedroom, which seemed to be seriously lacking in the decor department, before pausing at the sight of a few action figures. "Ooh, now we're talking."

Speaking of talking, I wasn't sure why he was saying so many words out loud. He definitely knew that I could see him; was he aware I could also basically hear his every breath? Admittedly, he probably wanted me to be placing the last two machines in his living room…. In any case, he picked up one of the action figures, which seemed to be of some kind of stuntman, and tossed it into the ball of light. I didn't think it possible, but it flashed even brighter.

Not a second later, the ball had reformed into a glowing-orange man. At least, it was part of one. His lower body seemed to be nonexistent, wisping off into a ghostly tail. "Yo, sick move, man!" the creation called.

"Uh, whoa," my client said, clearly quite surprised to see his figure come to life.

"Hey, it's all good, my dude! You gave me the power of sentience, and I'm gonna give you the power of knowledge." It did seem that he was a stuntman, and his enthusiastic flips showed a fulfillment of that role. "I'm your sprite, and there's a few things you need to know. You'd better run your Punch Designix and get the card out of it, bro."

The client stepped immediately over to the smaller device, not offering his sprite a word. I wondered if the thing was right about having sentience. Whatever it was, it seemed the sprite's purpose was to guide someone through the introduction to Snbrn. Fortunately, that meant that I wouldn't have to rely on my client's perfect accuracy to do everything I needed when I eventually started playing.

Deciding to leave the two new friends alone for a moment, I hovered around on the screen until I figured out how to move out of the bedroom. Apparently, I only had to click on the door, which I wish I could say took me less than 60 seconds to figure out. His living room was similarly basic, which meant that the last two devices - the Totem Lathe and the Alchemiter - were easily placed just outside, and not a moment too late. Stuntsprite came bursting through the door, a full two seconds before my client, who was now holding a large card in his left hand. It must have been what came out of the Punch Designix.

It seemed there was little else for me to do; they'd not brought the laptop out with them, so there was likely nothing they needed to communicate with me. I watched as Stuntsprite instructed in the use of the machines. The large card was placed in a slot on the Totem Lathe, and the cylinder - apparently made of a mineral called "cruxite" - was centered on its platform. The machine whirred to life, carving the cruxite into an odd vase shape, which my client immediately moved to the Alchemiter.

Seconds later, my screen was filled with the image of a bright orange pine tree. It was decked out in a stunning display of lights, perhaps apparently multiplied by the shimmering streams of tinsel... but it only lasted for a second. It winked out of existence, dropping a single Christmas cracker onto the living room floor. "Damn, the game thinks I'm Christian?" my client sighed.

"Aw, don't feel bad, Brenner," Stuntsprite said. "The entry item is totally nothing personal. Don't even waste time worryin' about it." He moved to give Brenner a comforting pat on the shoulder but stopped shortly before.

Indeed, his message was something I could easily agree with. If the timer on the Cruxtruder was anything to be afraid of, Brenner had to, ehm, get cracking. "Alrighty then. See ya soon, Enzo," he stated, clutching the cracker tightly in his hands and twisting it sharply.

My computer screen flared painfully white, much brighter than I'd seen it get before. The only clue that it hadn't completely crashed was the thin Snbrn menu still strapped across the top of the screen. A few seconds later, however, the image faded back into the view of Brenner's living room. His hands were plastered over his eyes, shielding the majority of his face, as Stuntsprite looked on, clearly resistant to such struggles. This time, he tapped him on the shoulder, leading Brenner to release his eyes.

Immediately, he was drawn to the window, which he jogged to and stared out. "Where am I?"

His sprite started to hover over, but before I could listen in on the conversation, I heard a thud from another room, this time certainly in my house. If Gian wasn't home, there were only two possibilities - either the house was being invaded, on the absolute worst possible day for such a thing to happen, or his dogs were getting restless. I typed out a quick "be right back" message in the server/client chat before leaping into the hall.

For some reason, I found myself surprisedly staring at two very scared looking dogs, who were both shuddering slightly. I hated to admit it, but they looked exceptionally adorable and rather in need of comfort, so I knelt down and gave them both some gentle head rubs. "Aw, all these meteors must be driving you out of your minds…" Leila, a Corgi, calmed fairly quickly, lapping her tongue out at my hand lovingly. The warmth of my heart rose to even greater heights, so I stayed there for a few more minutes hoping to calm Soraya as well.

The hearty German Shepherd was not the type to alter her mood quickly, but it seemed I'd done well enough to quell the quaking in her legs. "How about you two come on in here?" As much joy as the dogs gave me, a deep green feeling was seeping into my mind, a feeling that whatever was to happen to me soon, I wouldn't want to let these two get far out of sight. Soraya walked in right after me, placing her head on my knee as I sat back down at my desk chair. Leila hopped a few times, slowly following suit.

In the time I had spent away from my laptop, the state of the living room had changed noticeably. Brenner and Stuntsprite had left at some point, presumably heading elsewhere in the house. Probably his bedroom, considering that the window where I had minimized the server/client chat was illuminated. The most surprising difference, however, was the imps. A small group of little orange guys were skittering across the living room floor, a strangely creepy display to hear. Something gave me the impression that Brenner wasn't going to love having these pointy little dudes running around and scratching up his walls.

Transfixed by the subtle diversities in the imps' forms, I watched their animalistic motions around the room for who knows how long. A small yip from Leila, who had lightly bumped into my desk, lead me to snap out of my focus, trying to get my priorities back in order. After another few seconds of thinking, I recalled that I had an unread message waiting for me.

Client: You won't want to be too long. Odds are the meteor that's headed your way is very close.

Server: Do you suppose playing this game is what sent them our way? It seems so crazy…

Client: Ah, you'll have more time to ponder that later, I think. Why don't you go ahead and pop in your client disk and wait to be picked up?

Server: Sure thing. You probably want to start killing the imps around your house too, dude.

Client: Shit

I couldn't think of a decent enough reply, so I only offered my computer a look that said, "Yikes." Quickly, the client disc replaced the server, and although the image of Brenner's living room stayed on screen for a bit, it was then replaced by a cascading pattern of spirographs. I was, admittedly, somewhat amused; it was slightly more impressive to watch than that of the server disc.

As soon as the loading finished, however, Brenner's living room was right back on my screen. I watched for a few seconds as he swung around his nunchaku, bashing one of the imps directly on the head. He was clearly a natural, easily distracting me until the server/client communication tab lit up. If everything went to plan, at least everything that had not already failed to go to plan, then that would be Anatoli.

Server: You should open the Cruxtruder ASAP to see how much time you have until the meteor hits. It's gonna take a pretty solid hit, can you do that?

Client: I'll see what I can do with my staff. Think you can fit all those machines in the common room? Might be easier for me to move there

Server: Yes, looks like enough room to me. Go ahead out, I've got the Cruxtruder down.

Although I would have hated to admit it, my heart was already quivering not 60 seconds into my Snbrn experience. Whatever was happening, it was serious, and if I didn't get a move on, it would be happening all over my future grave.

It seemed that my size estimate of the Cruxtruder from my brief server experience were roughly correct. I quickly approached it, digging my fingers under the lid and tugging on it. That seemed fruitless, so I clearly hadn't been lied to. The next question, then, was where I had left my staff. I usually kept it in the corner of my room near the rest of my athletic stuff, but it hadn't been there, or else I wouldn't have left my room without it. However, a quick glance around the common room showed that it wasn't lying there, semi-forgotten. I must have left it in my car.

For a second, I rushed in the direction of the front door, halting as my view was suddenly populated by another machine. I managed to freeze just in time, it seemed, to avoid getting a face full of Alchemiter. Surely, I was getting a message just at that moment. Anatoli wasn't likely to apologize for something like this, but he would surely have a witty saying or two that I could roll my eyes at in the near future. In the meantime, I would have to climb over the unfortunately large device.

Knowing that every move I made was being followed, surely, didn't exactly make my progress graceful as I lumbered over the Alchemiter, but I couldn't let that distressing thought fill my brain. There were far more important things to be anxious about. For example, as I burst out the front door, I felt a surprising wave of heat, the likes of which I had only felt on a summer trip to Texas. A distant sound crackled in the background as I ran to my car, doing my best not to distract myself by looking around. Fortunately, my staff lay patiently on the backseat. In a manner of seconds, it was gripped tightly in my hand.

My return to the house, although temporally brief, offered much more chance for distraction. Smoke seemed to split the sky into stripes. Clearly, the increase in heat I felt had been the result of one too many meteor crashes. Thoughts of what could possibly be ignited by a blitzing space rock threatened to send me into a far more toxic state of mind, so I gulped loudly and ducked back inside.

Without thinking, I tossed my staff over the Alchemiter, then awkwardly crawling over the device. Clearly my earlier display of awkwardness wasn't inspiration enough to move the device, which perhaps might not have been an option in the first place. Either way, I was sure I'd have some words for my dear server as soon as we next met in person.

"Hopefully this works," I mumbled to myself, adjusting my grip on my staff for several seconds before swinging at the top of the Cruxtruder. It gave a faint, metallic thud but offered nothing further. Well, there went that plan.

A thump from my bedroom lead me to flinch, taking a moment before remembering that it must have been the dogs. Alas, before I could react, the door swung open, and Leila burst into the living room, yipping obliviously and hobbling towards me. "Look out, girl; I've gotta hit this thing again." Doing my best to channel my nerves into my arms, I swung at the Cruxtruder with as much strength as I could. Finally, I was successful.

Seeing the amount of time I had left certainly served only to make me more nervous. Five minutes and eight seconds flashed on the screens as a teal cylinder of cruxite leapt at me. I jumped back, barely missing a whack to the shin. Leila yipped again, shuffling her adorable body over to make sure I was okay. Naturally, I knelt down to give her some serious head rubs, hoping to ease the tension in both of us.

"You know, girl, I'd love to keep up with this Snbrn stuff, but I'm pretty sure my sprite never came out…" I looked up at the Cruxtruder just in time to see a flashing teal ball barreling right towards me, almost as though it were waiting for that exact moment. I let out an unfortunate curse and rolled backwards, hoping that I was more than a hair's width out of the way.

Had my eyes not been closed, I would have seen a brilliant shine of light. Clearly, my sprite had found something to prototype itself with. I only hoped it hadn't stolen my staff.

"Kieran!" an excited voice cheered. _Oh no._ As I slowly peeled my eyes open, I caught sight of the voice's source. My jaw promptly crashed open. "You'd better hurry up and get your other machines running!"

"Leila?"


	5. A1 S1 Ch5

SNBRN

* * *

"You're…"

"Your sprite, yes!" Leilasprite cheered. "It's so nice to finally talk to you in your language! But you only have about four minutes left, so please get back to the rest of your machines."

Contrary to the task I was just given, I couldn't help staring at Leilasprite for a lengthy period of shock. A quick feeling struck my chest - Gian was not currently here to see his dogs, and it was almost certain he wouldn't be back before… _Fuck, Gian's gonna be dead…_

Leilasprite seemed to sense the despair that wracked me, as she floated toward me and looked as though she were going to headbutt me lovingly. She stopped mere centimeters away, however, without a word. "I know this is scary, but it's your only chance to make it. First, you should turn on the Punch Designix and get the card that comes out." It took a few more seconds, but I finally found myself able to follow her instructions.

The Punch Designix looked rather like a large, white desk with a keypad on the surface. At a loss for what else to do with the thing, I pressed a button on the top and waited as an electronic hum resounded. A few seconds later, a card that was about as large as my cell phone slipped out from the front of the machine, which apparently had been hiding a small slot. The card was riddled with a seemingly random assortment of pristinely rectangular holes. "W...what's the next step?" I asked, holding the card up at eye level.

Leilasprite bobbed up and down. "Put your cruxite dowel in the Totem Lathe and use the card on it."

"Right," I whispered to myself, shaking the fog out of my head. Honestly, it was almost as though I hadn't literally watched Brenner do these exact steps less than fifteen minutes ago. And so, the teal cylinder went into the lathe, and the punched card went into the slot. I watched as thirty seconds ticked down on the clock before the cruxite was finished carving. Admittedly, the uniform roundness of the wavy carving was quite mesmerizing. It was a shame I would have to use it up to move forward.

"That leaves the Alchemiter," I whispered again.

"Yes, you've got it!" Leilasprite cheered. "Do you remember what you're doing?"

"I sure hope so," I answered, gently placing the carved cruxite atop the Alchemiter. "Does it matter which orientation this thing is facing?"

"Uh, yes, yours is upside-down," Leilasprite answered.

Relieved that I asked, I flipped it over and turned on the device. Precious time continued to drip away as the machine scanned, whirring rather disturbingly. Surely, Brenner hadn't been waiting this long for his thing… Alas, there was little I could do but stare at the timer as it ticked down to two and a half minutes.

"Heads up!" Leilasprite chirped. Without thinking, I backed as far away from the Alchemiter as I could before a tree could grow on top of me or whatever. There didn't seem to be any such danger, though, as a cloud of teal confetti burst from the device in all directions. Although I caught myself worrying about having to clean it all up later, every last shred disintegrated before it hit the floor, leaving only a small cylinder before me.

I inched towards it apprehensively. Unlike Brenner, I had no idea what the hell this thing was. I picked up the teal rod wordlessly, giving it a quick examination. It almost felt as though it were made of cardboard, with a paper seal over one of the circular faces and a dial on the opposite face. Before I could experiment with it, Leilasprite's voice rang out again. "It's a party popper! You better point it away from your face!"

Still, I wasn't quite sure which direction the thing could be classified as "pointing," so I held it roughly vertical, with the dial at the bottom. I rested my fingers around it, looking over to Leilasprite to see if she had any further words of wisdom. She only continued bobbing up and down, her tongue hanging out joyously.

"Happy New Year," I announced, twisting the dial. With a sharp crack, tinsel sprang out of the popper, reflecting the blinding white light that instantaneously followed.

I couldn't tell how long I'd kept my eyes shut after the fact, but the last thing I needed was a pair of burnt retinas. I only opened them after I felt a nudge to the back of my leg. "Soraya?" Indeed, Gian's other dog had finally left the safety of my bedroom to see what all the commotion was. She stared up for a few seconds, during which I could almost sense a feeling of apprehension or surprise. Her focus was not on me, however, but on her companion, who was now a floating, teal light entity, so I figured her disbelief had been well-founded.

"Soraya! Can you believe it?" Leilasprite cheered, zipping down to bop her nose against Soraya's. Soraya appeared to grow only more shocked, but she stayed put and accepted the bop. "Oh, sorry, you can't speak English!" She closed her eyes for a few seconds, as though radiating love in Soraya's direction, before floating back up to my eye level.

"I guess it worked? I'm in the Medium?" I asked.

Leilasprite bobbed up and down a few times. "Your house is now completely safe from the meteors on Earth. Go ahead and take a look out the window if you'd like!" There would hopefully be much to gain from seeing where I'd been dropped off, so I slowly walked over to the back of the living room, on which was a window facing our backyard.

The bright cyan of the sky had disappeared, replaced by a moody indigo. That was hardly the most interesting thing, however, as the sky was filled with a beautiful assortment of flickering stars. Had it not been for their abundance, I might have even been fooled into thinking it was just a typical Earthly night. A "whoa…" slipped from my lips as Soraya walked to place herself under my loose hand.

"Oh, do you like it? I'm a huge fan of stars! These aren't really stars, though, not like you're thinking," Leilasprite chimed.

The thought of what these stars could be was puzzling, but the question that brewed in my throat was shoved back by another. "Wait, how do you know they aren't stars?"

Leilasprite's eyebrows rose, as though surprised to be asked such a thing. "Oh, they could be, I guess! For all intents and purposes, they might as well be. But they're not huge balls of gas burning up far away. They're a few miles up in this planet's atmosphere!" Well, if this planet could whisk away my entire house, I supposed it was allowed to have some magical mini stars floating around and minding their own business.

A look down to the ground revealed that a chunk of lawn remained around the house, dissolving into a cloud of deep taupe sand. Had there been more light present, the two surfaces would have stood in starker contrast. My eyes traced the line separating Earth from my new home for a few seconds. "Where exactly am I?"

"You're on the Land of Stars and Towers!" Leilasprite answered. "This is your new home for the game, I suppose. At some point, you'll head to the surface, probably really soon. You can talk to the consorts, figure out what the culture is like here, and see if there's anything you can help them with."

The first descriptor of the title seemed fitting, at least. Although I hadn't spied any towers from my window, I could easily imagine something like a metropolis just absolutely jam-packed with towering structures. I wondered what style the consorts used… "That seems kind of… open-ended." I guessed my friends weren't kidding when they said it was a sandbox game. "What exactly am I expected to help the consorts with? Is that how I advance the game?"

Leilasprite's eyes softened slightly, giving me a gaze only an aging mother or professor might be able to conjure. "There are a lot of things that I can teach you as your sprite, but that is something you'll have to figure out on your own."

My fingertips steadily swept back and forth over Soraya's head as I pondered. Thus, I was able to feel as her ears lowered, and the two of us turned around in unison. "Did you hear something?" She didn't need to answer, as not one second later came a clanking from my bedroom. "Oh, shit…"

The door swung open, showing off an astoundingly short creature with an exceptionally pissed look on its face. Two canine ears poked up from the top of its oddly circular head, and it clutched a piccolo in one of its pointy, teal hands. The initial shock of seeing the abomination was quickly blanketed by an honestly surprising bubble of rage. Who the hell did this thing think it was, barging in my damn bedroom? Oh, it was time to square up.

I looked over to the Cruxtruder, finding my staff. As I grabbed it, though, something felt… rather like I was wearing a coat that had torqued my sleeve underneath. The shock returned, sprinkling into trepidation. _What is the matter with me?_

"Oh!" Leilasprite interrupted. "This is probably a good time to let you know that inventories don't work the same way in the Medium as they do on Earth."

What.

"Since you're about to get into your first real strife, you had better place your weapon of choice into your strife specibus," Leilasprite continued.

"Wha-" Before the short thought could be spread into the air, the imp finally leapt at me, swinging its piccolo at my head. Still clutching my staff in both hands, I shoved it upwards to block the attack, only briefly hindering its progress. "Can it wait? Kinda busy," I called.

"No!" Leilasprite rebutted. "In the Medium, lots of important things work differently!"

"Mind te-HUH!" My question was interrupted as the piccolo thwacked across my abdomen. I was able to tense on impact, abating some of the pain, but it was still a full-on attack with a metal weapon, so I wasn't exactly peaches. "What I gotta do?" I gasped.

"Allocate your staff to your strife specibus!"

"I don't know how!" Noticing the imp recharging, I swept my staff in an awkward circle, just knocking it out of the way momentarily.

"Don't think about it; just do it," Leilasprite said, almost soothingly. Not that I was relaxing anytime soon, but… If she was filled with magic sprite knowledge, it wasn't like I could debate with her, especially as half my energy was focused on not getting cold-cocked. _Just… do it._

Taking my best guess of what that meant, I lifted my hand slightly, splaying my fingers as though offering my staff to the sky. Before my eyes, it snapped out of existence, as though it was the image of a television I had just turned off. I wasn't frightened, oddly enough. Within a second, I could tell that it was still there… somewhere in the ether. I just knew it. Thus, as the imp came at me again with its exceptionally pointy instrument of torture, I found myself able to summon my staff again.

There, _that _was more like it. Powered a bit more than usual by anger, I made quick work of the imp, which popped into a small pile of… some kind of blue hexagonal solids.

"Grist!" Leilasprite cheered. "You'll get it whenever you kill any of the enemies in this game, and you better get a lot of it! That's how you and your server can build things that you'll need to move forward." No stranger to RPG's, I didn't need to be told twice. I reached for the stuff, feeling it disappear into the void much like my staff had. "It's in your grist cache now. There are all sorts of types of grist, which can be used to make pretty much anything with your Punch Designix if you can figure out how!"

"So we're in for the long haul here, huh."

Leilasprite bobbed up and down. "The longest haul, unfortunately. There's no going back to Earth, especially not as you knew it." I had sort of already figured that, but supposed it was worth hearing for certain. Leilasprite's face was very serious for a few seconds, but she tried to soften it before continuing. "The type you just got is build grist, and if you collect enough of it, your server can build up your house."

"Can build up my house?" I asked. "What for?"

"In this case, it'd probably be easier to show you. Can you lead the way to the roof?"

I hesitated for a second before leaning in the direction of the stairwell, slowly leading the procession towards the spare room. Initially, Gian and I had reserved it predominantly for storage, but the game seemed to think it was an excellent spawning point for imps. As I opened the door, four of the bastards accosted me. "Whoa," I gulped, hardly prepared for the onslaught. Each was an identical teal color, much like the first one I'd seen, but they had disturbingly variant forms. One seemed to be vaguely frog-like, its eyes rolling towards me as it held up a stick in its webbed, jagged fingers. Another boasted a giant beak and funnel, softly puffing off colorless smoke as it energized itself.

There were plenty of karate moves for dealing with either one or multiple attackers, but not many of the staff techniques were intended to defeat four weird aliens. My first attack barely grazed over one of their heads, doing little besides pissing it off. Grunting a bit in annoyance, I jerked downward, bashing the imp's head. It gave a sad shriek before popping into grist.

Before I could enjoy my hard-earned rewards, however, Steambird took a heavy chomp on my left leg. "Ah, shit!" Losing some of the focus of finer technique, I swung the staff again, taking only enough care to keep from whacking myself. I was fortunate that it only took one hit to free myself, but the imp looked as alive as ever.

Since they were so short, I depended predominantly on a series of downward blocks, following up with some jabs when the blocks weren't enough. However, none of the remaining three seemed to be as easy a time as the first had been. Clearly, I had not gotten enough experience against groups. "Uh, Leilasprite, can you help me out here?"

"Okay!" she cheered, swooping down directly in front of me to distract the imps. She was able to lead Steambird away for a bit, giving me enough focus to beat the daylights out of one imp, which finally exploded in defeat. Frogger's eyes rolled around in their sockets for only a moment before it leapt at me, this time aiming high with its stick. Alas, mine was quicker, and its bold decision left it sprawling on the floor, so I quickly jabbed it, ending that fight.

Leilasprite, however, had done little actual attacking. Honestly, I supposed I would have been surprised if she had magically gained the ability to fight alongside the encyclopedia package she'd downloaded to her brain. Noticing the other imps' absence, though, she led Steambird back to me, and it only managed to scratch my calf once before I had defeated it. "Good work!"

"Thanks for your help," I said with a smile. "Is that the last of them?" I figured not.

"For the moment," Leilasprite affirmed. "But they can spawn basically anywhere that you aren't looking. Once you head out on your quest, they'll stop spawning in the house."

"Good thing we're headed to the roof, then," I sighed. Leilasprite's face, however, did not indicate that the thing was quite so good. "Unless you mean there's something I have to like… do on my quest, that'll stop them?"

She bobbed a few times. "I'll tell you outside."

Thus, not a minute later, we'd gone out the window onto the inclined portion of the roof, on which I lay down, just in case. Between the splatter of stars, a large spirograph glowed in the sky, perhaps 100 meters above us. "What's that?"

"That's your first gate," Leilasprite answered. "There are six of them total, each one higher up than the one before it. As you accumulate build grist, your server player can add levels to your house to help you reach them."

"Whoa…" I wasn't crazy about the idea of having some kind of physics-disapproved pillar house, which I doubted would be stable. Especially considering I'd have to climb it… hundreds of meters into the air…

It would be better than a ladder, I supposed.

"Where does the first one go?"

Leilasprite paused for a few seconds, as though trying to decide if I was allowed such pertinent information. "It's hard to say exactly where all the gates go, but generally, the first one goes somewhere on your planet, wherever it needs you to be to get started on your quest. The next four might be the same way, wherever you'll be ready to go once you've gotten enough grist to build your house up that high. And the last one should take you to your denizen's cave, where you can finish up your quest on this world."

I rolled onto my back, spreading my arms wide and joining Leilasprite as she stared up at the gates. We stayed completely still for a few moments, letting naught but our torsos move as this information was slowly inhaled. "Did you mean to imply something when you said the next four "might" be the same way?"

Leilasprite gave an odd sort of ruff, perhaps her first attempt at a chuckle. "Well, that word choice was intentional. What I meant is that later gates could also lead to the planets of the other players. Maybe one of them will be in need of your help at a certain time, or maybe their world has the key to something you've been trying to figure out. Only the game really knows that, I think."

That was enough for me to hoist myself into a seated position. "The other players' planets? That means I get to see the other guys? How long will that be?"

"It's impossible to say for sure," Leilasprite said, keeping any premature excitement to a minimum. "It's probably going to be several days between each of your journeys through a gate at the very least. And in your session with eight players, you'd only be visiting four of them at most."

"But if each of them is visiting four other planets, too, then that's a pretty solid chance," I added. Leilasprite responded with her signature modified nod. For a second, I considered adding another point to boost my own optimism, but I let it slip from my throat. Honestly, my head was already swimming with all sorts of facts that Leilasprite had told me, and it hadn't even been thirty minutes since I started playing this unbelievable game. My last thought upon falling asleep the night before was increasingly accurate, and for all intents, my day on the Land of Stars and Towers had only just begun.

And so, I let my back rest on the slope of the roof again, reaching over to slowly pet Leilasprite as we watched the stars.


End file.
